Frederick McClendon (pictured), a Brooklyn retired city bus driver, will be living the good life from here on in, after claiming his winnings in the New York Lottery’s Cash4Life draw game and winning the top prize of $7 million, according to the New York Daily News.

The 51-year-old young retiree purchased his winning tickets from a liquor store in his borough on November 24th then checked his numbers the day after the drawing. When McClendon returned to the liquor store to check on the numbers that had been drawn, the clerk actually told him that a winning ticket had been purchased there.

The news increased his urgency to see if he had won, “I checked my ticket right in the store, and the store clerk gave me a printout of the results,” McClendon told Newsday. “That’s when I knew I had won big.”

When he told his wife and family about his run of luck, they didn’t believe him; they kept saying, “It’s just like, you’re lying.”

McClendon decided to claim his winnings at the Lottery headquarters on December 1 and a lump sum payment of $4.3 million after withholdings is his payment preference.

McClendon plans on spending his winnings on his family and setting up some college funds for the children. “It’s about my family,” he told the New York Daily News. “I love my family.”